SC Slave Owner Names–Beaufort and Hilton Head

The Book of Names project will transcribe and analyze the names of former slaves as well as those of former slave-owning families. The latter is represented by one person in camp registers but in fact represents groups of people.

The above word cloud was created of two registers, one Beaufort, S.C. register and one Hilton Head, S.C. register. Taken together, there are in the two registers 1,092 freedpeople whose names were recorded.

The ten most frequently named slave owners are

• Adams (22)
• Barnwell (31)
• Blake (29)
• Chaplin (37)
• Chisholm (90)*
• Cuthbert (25)
• Fripp (46)*
• Jenkins (58)
• Pickney (15)/Pinckney (10)
• Seabrook (29)

In the coming year, the BON Project will transcribe and publish additional S.C. registers for: Charleston, Otter Island, and Tybee and Cockspur Islands, adding these to the overall picture of slavery and emancipation in South Carolina.

*Chisholm and Fripp represent several owners with those particular surnames. Among the Chisholm’s might be added Chism (3).